On Tuesday, the government ordered a cut in mobile phone charges by the end of November, saying it had been forced to act because the communications regulator would not do so.
SHOOT: It's about time we had the highest communication tariffs in the world lowered, just a pity it's taken a global recession for it to happen. The government must be thinking that money should rather go to Eskom.
The committee has proposed interconnection rates should be cut to 60c per minute during peak times by November and then by a further 15c annually until 2012. Operators currently charge each other R1.25 per minute during peak times.
Johannesburg - South Africa's mobile phone firms are facing another battle with regulators after the country's competition commission said on Thursday it would investigate possible collusion over prices in the industry.
"We've got three cases that we are investigating (in the mobile phone industry), but they deal with the same issue," Nandi Mokoena, Competition Commissions' manager of strategy and stakeholder relations, told Reuters on Thursday in a telephone interview.
"The allegations are that cellular phone companies have agreed on the rates they charge."
Mokoena said mobile phone operators - MTN and Cell C - have been notified about the probe.
Meanwhile, the South African government on Tuesday and Wednesday held public hearings, as part of plans to push mobile and telecom operators to reduce interconnection fees, in an attempt to lower telecoms costs that have impacted the country's growth.
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clipped from www.fin24.com
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